3/24/2009 @ 8:20PM

In Depth: Are You Eating Too Much Meat?

Cut Back on Processed Meats

The Archives of Internal Medicine study showed that mortality risk increased for those who ate processed meat. Some researchers suspect the link has to do with nitrates used to preserve lunch meats. When meat is cooked at a high temperature, potentially carcinogenic compounds can occur. Try avoiding nitrate-laden lunch meat, as well as the black bits that form on charred meat. You can also slow roast or braise meat, which doesn’t trigger the same chemical reaction.